November 18, 2007

After throwing two early interceptions, Donovan McNabb got knocked out of the game by a take down from a blitzing Dolphins corner. McNabb sprained his right ankle, almost exactly one year away from when he tore his ACL in the same leg. X-rays were negative, but Donovan sat out the rest of the game. Right now his status for next week is uncertain.

Feeley Gets Revenge:

A.J. Feeley stepped in for the injured McNabb, and threw the third Eagles interception of the game. After that mistake Feeley settled down. He completed 13 of 19 passes, for 116 yards, and 1 touch down. Feeley did a good job of spreading the ball around, hitting eight different receivers.

A.J. was traded to Miami in 2004 for a second round pick(ended up being Reggie Brown), and was once considered the franchise QB. Feeley struggled in Miami, and was traded away to San Diego. After a brief stint there Feeley was released in 2006, and the Eagles quickly brought him back to Philadelphia. Now Feeley got his chance to stick it to his former team, and succeeded in defeating them. Dolphins fans must really hate him.

Another Huge Goal Line Stand:

For the second week in a row, the Eagles defense was put to the test. The Dolphins had a first-and-goal from the one yard line, and things looked bad for Philadelphia.

On first down they ran Jesse Chatman up the middle, but the Eagles defense burst through the line, and tackled him for a 1 yard loss. On second down John Beck dropped back, and made a pretty nice pass, but Takeo Spikes was able to break it up. The Dolphins chose to run again on third down, and the Eagles gang tackle Jesse Chatman.

After a timeout, Dolphins head coach Cam Cameron decided to go for it on 4th-and-goal down 10 points late in the fourth quarter. The play was an outside toss to Chatman, and DE Juqua Thomas was all over it. Chatman danced backwards, and was tackled for a 13 yard loss.

The Eagles took over on downs, and this great defensive series basically sealed the game.

Career Day For B-West:

Brian Westbrook is just amazing. He continues to show how valuable he is to the team every week. Andy Reid fed Westbrook the ball early, and often. So much so, that he rushed for 148 yards, a career best. Westbrook broke a few big runs, and is simply just the best player on the team. I don't know where this team would be without Westbrook.

Kearse Deactivated:

The news had come out earlier in the week, that Juqua Thomas would be starting over Kearse, but I really did not think they would not play Kearse at all. He may be a little banged up, but it seems he has completely fallen out of favor with the coaching staff. It will be interesting to see if Kearse plays next week against New England.

Starting in his place, Juqua Thomas has done a nice job. He really has become a great pick up for the Eagles. Thomas was on the streets looking for a job a few years ago, and now is a starter. Ironically it was Jevon Kearse who convinced the Eagles to try out Thomas, as Juqua was an old friend of his back in Tennessee.

Stupid Penalties By Smith:

On the Eagles first possession, Andy Reid called a flea-flicker play, that was perfectly executed for a touch down to Reggie Brown. Except the play was called back by a stupid holding penalty on L.J. Smith. Smith had help outside from Brent Celek, and there was no reason to grab onto Jason Taylor's jersey. The drive then ended in a McNabb interception.

Later in the game Smith made another bonehead play. A.J. Feeley fired a touch down pass to wide receiver Jason Avant, and after the play L.J. was called for a 15 yard personal foul penalty. Luckily the penalty was after the play, and enforced on the kickoff, but it still hurt the team. The Dolphins then got great field position, and were almost able to score on that drive.

If L.J. wants more money, he needs to stop killing this team with stupid mistakes. A big fumble last week, and this week he makes 2 stupid penalties. That is just unacceptable.

Special Teams Still Suck:

The special teams coverage teams showed that they still suck today. Early in the second quarter, speedy return man Tedd Ginn made one man miss, got some good blocks, and out ran the punter for an 87 yard punt return touch down. It was Ginn's first return TD of his short career.

The special teams has been terrible at covering kickoffs, and punts most of the season. I don't get how it has gotten so bad, because they used to be great at it(a few years ago). Now I see why Dawkins went out to cover the kickoff against Washington. Even he knows they suck.

Westbrook danced around the question of whether or not the five-year, $25-million pact he signed in 2005 that included a signing bonus of $6 million remains fair market value.

"The contract I signed back then, it made sense for me at that point," Westbrook said. "Right now, I try not to get into contract numbers and contract talk right now. We're focusing on trying to win football games. For this team, we don't want anything to distract us from doing that."

The Eagles play winless Miami on Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field.

Westbrook held out of training camp in 2005 before the Eagles negotiated an extension.

Helping Westbrook is his age (28) and ascent into the prime of his career. The Eagles haven't batted an eyelash at showing the door to players over 30 seeking contract extensions.

But they have extended contracts of peak performers early in their careers. Four years remained on McNabb's contract when the Eagles awarded him a 12-year extension in 2002. Last year, the Eagles locked up Trent Cole, Mike Patterson, Reggie Brown and three offensive linemen with long-term contracts. Of the six, four were in their second year with the team.

Since signing a contract in 2005, Westbrook has emerged as one of the league's top all-around backs, and his durability is less of a question mark. He went over the 1,000-yard rushing mark last season for the first time, totaling 1,917 offensive yards and 11 touchdowns, both career highs, while playing 15 games and both postseason games.

Westbrook is on pace to eclipse those marks this season. His 1,219 yards from scrimmage are second-best in the NFL, along with his 6.1 yards-per-touch average. His three touchdowns against the Redskins on Sunday gave him nine for the season.

But the short life span of NFL running backs almost guarantees that Westbrook's only shot to land a windfall similar to LaDainian Tomlinson's eight-year, $60 million contract with San Diego or Larry Johnson's six-year, $45-million deal with Kansas City has already passed.

"I think any player -- offense, defense, any position -- looks at the contract and tries to maximize the money they get, because you never know what's going to happen in the future," Westbrook said. "You never know what's going to transpire. There's nothing guaranteed in the NFL except for your signing bonus, so you try to maximize that as much you can."

He spent the first three years of his career as a backup to Jevon Kearse in Tennessee. For most of the past two-and-a-half seasons, he's been Kearse's backup in Philadelphia.

Now, Juqua Thomas replaces Kearse as the starter at left defensive end. Defensive coordinator Jim Johnson made the announcement at his press conference Thursday.

"Trent (Cole) is playing at a high caliber, no question about it. J.T. is playing very well. Those two right now they're two of our better ends in the pass rush. It's as simple as that and they're getting more time than (Darren) Howard and Jevon. No secret. J.T. is getting good pressure and so is Trent," Johnson said.

For all intents and purposes, the 29-year-old Thomas has been the unofficial starter for weeks. The Redskins opened in a two tight-end set last week, a formation which called for rookie Victor Abiamiri to start in only his second NFL game. However, Thomas took most of the snaps. He's totaled four sacks this season and since 2006 he is second among all undrafted players with 11.5 sacks (Chicago's Adewale Ogunleye, 16.5), according to Stats Inc.

"It's going to be a big challenge," said Thomas.

Kearse started the first eight games of the season. The three-time Pro Bowl end battled back from a left knee injury which sidelined him for all but two games last year. However, he is not 100 percent healthy. Kearse has had to have his knee drained twice this season, the last time was prior to the Dallas game.

"It's football. That's how it was when I came in. That's how it will be when I'm gone. It's a part of the game," Kearse said after Thursday's practice.

Thomas originally signed with the Titans as a rookie free agent in 2001. He accumulated five sacks over four years as the backup to Kearse, Carlos Hall and Kevin Carter. Thomas joined the Eagles during training camp in 2005 and had a phenomenal 10-tackle performance in the season finale. Thomas re-upped for one more season and had a career-high six sacks with another 1.5 in the two playoff games. On the first day of free agency in 2007, Thomas was re-signed by the Eagles to a five-year deal.

Johnson added that Howard, who has primarily played as a defensive tackle in the nickel package, is strictly a right defensive end and should see more snaps this week as Cole's backup. Howard made two big stops during the goal line stand in the fourth quarter of last Sunday's win that held the Redskins to a field goal and allowed the Eagles the opportunity to come back and win.

The Eagles needed Sunday's win over Washington desperately, and when a team is desperate, crazy things happen.

Crazy things like a six-time Pro Bowl safety covering kickoffs.

After Brian Westbrook's incredible 57-yard touchdown potentially saved Philadelphia's season, Brian Dawkins didn't want to see the kickoff coverage unit cough up the lead. That's why when they took the field to kick the ball back to the Redskins, Dawkins was with them - for, according to his memory - the first time in seven or eight years.

"That was just something that was a spur of the moment type thing; something that I wanted to do to help out," Dawkins said. "If I made the play, great; if I didn't, then hopefully I'd be out there to help the guys out and hopefully not allow a big play to happen."

Dawkins said that after deciding he was going to cover the kick, there was no way he was staying on the sideline.

"I just felt like it was something I had to do and wanted to do. I didn't really ask to go in, I said that I was going in," Dawkins said. "That's not a slight of the coaches or like I'm bullying anybody, but that's just the way I felt. I wanted to be out there, so that's what happened."